The Department of Turkish folk dance was founded in 1989 under the auspice of the State Turkish Music Conservatory at Ege university, located in Izmir, Turkey.

The Turkish folk dance department was established to educate students about folk dance, costumes and music which have such an important place in Turkish culture. The principal goal and desire is to introduce the great variety and cultural richness of Turkish traditional folk dances, folk costumes, and folk music with a serious scientific and professional point of view.

In the department, besides theoretical and applied education about these folk traditions, great importance is given to a broad-based creative arts education as well. Informed by this comprehensive approach, training in different dance techniques as well as theatre arts is given as part of the foundation of artistic training to encourage creativity.

As a result of this encouragement, many creative projects have been produced, which alongside the high academic record, has served to produce a fine artistic as well as educational reputation for the department. Our students’ goals are to become professional stage performers of folk dance, instructors, researchers, and academicians to transfer their knowledge to future generations.

The department has consistently placed strong emphasis on basic and applied research, and has achieved national recognition in this area. It promotes research projects conducted by methodical trained personnel throughout the country, and abroad, according to specific ethnological development. Staff and students work in depth to preserve, restore and record folk dance in their original contextual meaning which involve the related fields of Theatre, music, costume and traditional folkways of the particular region. These dances are then restaged for the concert hall, utilizing the latest technological advances available.

In addition to many international forums, festivals and organizations in which it has participated to promote Turkish Culture, the department of Turkish Folk Dances presents new projects in its traditional “Ekin” shows each year. The students of the Conservatory’s Dance Department are rigorously trained, based on the current standards for performing artists. Physically demanding, folk dances and related strength building exercises are practiced daily, with additional classes in applied dramatics, theatrical make-up, rhythm and music theory and so forth.

The Department Turkish Dance aims to offer education in the traditional Turkish folk dance by using scientific methods and techniques, to transfer the Turkish cultural wealth to future generations and to educate qualified trainers and academicians.

The Department of Turkish Folk Dance supports its dance technique with ballet, modern and theatrical dance in addition to the traditional dances. The projects named “Sari Zeybek” “Koy- U Kirmizi” and “Kampanalar Caliyor” are some examples of dance theatre.

The Department participated in the 22nd International Folk dance and Folk Music Competition held in Zakopane, Poland in 1990 and received both the Golden Axe and Golden Bell awards by ranking first place in this worldwide competition.

The Turkish Dance Department brought the gold medal to Turkey by receiving the championship award in the Dijon Festival, acknowledged as the largest folk dance competition in the world, held annually in Dijon, France.

The Department has participated in many national and international folk music and folk dance festival with its show performance, and has represented Turkey with great success. Some of these festivals were held in Germany, France, Belgium, Hungary, the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Poland, Finland, Switzerland, England and the United States of America.